Pokemon Fanart: Oddish .Gif ♥

Oddish, my beloved. I never go a game without him. Very quick jump cycle.

Made You Cringe~! #4

Here's a short I worked on for the Made You Cringe series by Danny and Simone Dresden at LondonSquared. Warning: Lots of tonguing, very icky!

A Very Romantic Storycorps Short!

Mostly did inbetweens for this one. Just in time for Valentine's Day ♥

"John and Joe" StoryCorps short

The latest 9/11 short I helped out on is out. Get the tissues ready.

"Always a Family" Storycorps short

Here's a very sad short I worked on made by the Rauch Bros. It's part of a 9/11 collection. These were emotionally tough to work on.

My Thesis...Still Unfinished.

It's been a year and the thing still isn't done. One of these days I'll re-ink this and change it to what I hoped it could be. It's about a princess with a heart condition who wants to be a DJ. I think i'll put up my rough since the end result will be different anyway. So many months of work...why did I think 7 minutes of animation would be okay?? Hah...someday...someday...

DYSRHYTHMIA

Mummies Love Pies!

This was the first episode I helped animate for the Electric Company shorts. I hold fond memories of this one. I listened to the haunted house friends ramble back and forth for HOURS while lip syncing. I grew to love them, they're just so silly! ♥

My Anime Girlfriend!

Been a while since I last posted. Was recently hired as the sole animator for this project and boy was I glad. It was somewhat of a dream come true. This is a series of 4 webisodes written by producer Daniel Powell who also produces Ugly Americans for Comedy Central (which I've also worked for). It's been really fun to do. My Anime Girlfriend is about a guy (in real life) with a 2-D anime girlfriend and the ups and downs of their relationship. Who wouldn't want an animu waifu? Click and enjoy~

http://www.atom.com/funny_videos/anime_girlfriend_101/

The Electric Company: Haunted House: Mistfortune

So during the summer, this was one of my first few jobs fresh out of college. It was super fun and I instantly fell in love with these silly characters. Many thanks to Alan Foreman for the opportunity~! The Electric Company airs every Monday on PBS KIDS GO. Check it out!

Icing on the Cake

Here's a short for StoryCorps I did some work for, done by the Rauch Brothers. I did Ink & Paint for this and I must say, getting through it was very emotional. The story is very sweet and I can relate personal experiences to it. Enjoy~!

Dead Body

A stop motion short made with converse sneakers. Audio courtesy of Andy London. Made by Daniel Torres and myself.

Dead Body from Erica Perez on Vimeo.

A Little Surprise

A short story about a boy, his cat and a dog who wants to attack them. His efforts are thwarted by the boy's new-found love pf cross-dressing.

First semester Junior year final project. Had to be no longer than 30 seconds but it was difficult because there was too much that couldn't be fit in. I seem to have this problem so often. Must work on that! Guess I'm just a long format kind of person. Anyhow, not the happiest with this. This was back when I had just finished learning how to use Flash in 2008 so it has that cheesy quality to it. Didn't have enough time to polish it up so it's still unpolished. Best thing about it I would say is that dog. I love his design. Very inspired by Bill Plymptons "Guard Dog" for this piece.

A Little Surprise from Erica Perez on Vimeo.

Where's Your Boyfriend At?

An assignment for Advanced Post Production. Create kinetic typography. I'm not one to be fantastic at type, to be honest. I usually stick to my favorites: Futura, Georgia, Cooper STD. Especially terrible at placing them in context to audio...but I took my best shot at it.

Kept it very minimal and fun. Bashful to admit but I started it the night before like at 10PM and finished just before class at 7am. Bad idea yes/yes? It got done but it was a very rough night...not doing that again. I liked the turnout though! It's quotable!

Where's Your Boyfriend At? from Erica Perez on Vimeo.

Here's the original skit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl6E92XTeBI

Creme De La Whale Commerical

Second assignment for 2nd-semester Junior year. Create a 30 second commercial in a team of 3 or so. Once we all shared our ideas, the class split itself into teams based on who liked whose idea. Jane and Amanda joined me on my whale sperm shampoo idea so I got to be director, yay~! I really enjoyed splitting up tasks and managing things since I don't usually get to do so.

The roles were split as such: I was the writer, character designer and lead animator; Amanda did backgrounds/design and compositing; Jane did sound and product design/creation.

It came together in one adorably skeevy package that is very like my usual line of writing. Both cute yet subtly perverse. The product is shampoo made from whale sperm (not sperm whale!). It's an actual product I found in the Dominican Republic. Thought it needed some repackaging...

*Fun tidbit: Amanda is the lovely actress in the shower and I did the voice for the sky maiden and whale.

Creme de la Whale Spec Commercial from Erica Perez on Vimeo.

BYOP 24 Hour Animation Contest 2009

Title: Flames of Desire
The theme: "it hurts so good".
It took an hour to come up with this plot but it feels very close to the short from last year. Paired up with Laura again, we decided to go with our guns and put in things we liked (Arabian themes, curry, girls in cute clothes, pretty boys with curly hair). It was going to be much more epic so we could animate a cliff jumping sequence but the 24 hour time constraint didn't allow for it. Sadness!

It won third place this year! We were pretty happy with regardless of not having it be 100% there. It's also in color as opposed to last year. So much work...I would tell you the plot but it would give away the story so you'll just have to watch it! Enjoy~

Flames Of Desire from Erica Perez on Vimeo.

Thesis!

It's been a while since I posted anything so let's start this back up with a look at my senior thesis. I've been working on it since September 2009 and It's now well into March with the deadline steadily approaching. It's due April 19th and I still have 52 out of my 100 shots to animate! It's a good thing I don't freak out ever or else I'd be on the floor crying! Huzzah. Time to introduce a new tag!

Basically it's an almost 7 minute story about a princess with a heart condition who wishes to become the greatest DJ. Her 31 year old butler and confidante will follow her to the ends of the Earth to help her achieve her dream, even if it does more bad than good.

I've been compiling themes I wanted to make into a film over time. It was originally going to be a music video but it ended up being a dialogue narrative. Ah well, maybe next time. Here are some stills for your enjoyment. I'll continue to post any interesting ones.

A lot of the lovely music in my film was made by a very young and talented musician in Denmark by the name of Jens Kiilstofte. He's up for hire so check him out! http://www.jkmusic.eu/

Delve - Junior Thesis Complete!

And so ends my Junior year. Gosh, to think, it's already been three years. The hard part starts now. My Senior Thesis. I had an idea but I realized that it was just something I wasn't doing for myself but that might entertain the viewer. I want to have something wacky and fun but still fairly serious and mysterious. That really is too much to ask for but I want to stay true to the things I like. If I love it enough, it will show. I want to have a super dance scene and a music video quality to it while still keeping a narrative. I'll try to stay away from romance since I always do that, except that I've never made an animation based on romance so I kind of want to do that too. This is all so hard. I'm going to spend a whole year on it so it better be damn well worth it. I'm psyched though! And with that, I leave you with my Junior Piece, enjoy.

Delve from Erica Perez on Vimeo.

BYOP 24 Hour Animation Contest 2008

Pratt had an animation contest the other month and I was gonna trek it alone but Laura came in just before which gave me a bit more courage. Over time I've discovered a few tricks of the trade and learned that I work pretty okay as a director. I came to the contest with a concept in mind and thankfully the theme ended up being incredibly fitting. We got to dishing out scenes and although we cut many of them for the sake of time, we finished right at 12PM. An entire completed story with sound (although mashed together in 15 minutes) and plot. We were incredibly satisfied but putting things into perspective, felt that The other teams that had more creative ideas should have been victorious. With expectations set low we left in wait for the results in the evening. Surprisingly enough, we won first place...I know I couldn't believe it either! We won some pretty cool stuff, a tablet and a 250GB hard drive. We were really happy, couldn't have done it without my partner in crime. Thanks Laura! Here's the final product. The theme: unexpected behavior...